The Internet is a system of geographically distributed computer networks interconnected by computers executing networking protocols that allow users to interact and share information over the networks. More specifically, the World-Wide-Web (“WWW”) is a collection of Web servers which support documents formatted as so called “Web pages” for viewing by Web clients. The WWW communications paradigm is based on a conventional client-server model and is facilitated by the use of Web servers which support Internet and Web protocols (e.g. TCP/IP and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”)).
Web clients can request Web page documents from a Web server which are then served to the Web clients over the WWW. A Web page is a computer data file on a host operating a Web server. The Web page may comprise a single line or multiple pages of information and may include any message, name, word, sound, picture, or combination of these elements. Users commonly view Web pages using tools known as Web browsers, which are software programs that are installed on the Web client and which allow users to access and search the Internet. Web browsers may be graphical (such as Netscape Corporation's Navigator™ or Microsoft Corporation's Internet Explorer™) or text based (such as Gopher). In a Web browser, information is displayed along with hypertext links which identify other WWW sites.
Web pages are created using a standard coding language called, Hypertext Markup Language (“HTML”). HTML along with Extended Markup Language (“XML”) and others are members of a family of computer languages referred to as “markup languages”. Markup languages are computer languages which define the format of a text document in a device-independent way. A primary purpose of a markup language, such as HTML, is to instruct a Web browser how to display the contents of the document, including text, images and other support media.
An HTML document contains textual tags indicating a format to be applied or other action to be taken relative to document text. These tags are character strings that have defined meanings in the particular markup language being used. Accordingly, HTML is a collection of platform-independent tags, which define the various components of the Web page. HTML documents are generally static, that is, the contents do not change over time except when the document is manually modified. Accordingly, in order to provide different HTML documents, it is necessary to install a server-side program that can generate an HTML document. HTML forms are comprised of one or more text input boxes, clickable buttons, multiple choice check boxes, and pull down menus and image maps. One or more HTML form can be included in an HTML document. Each HTML form can contain the same content as a HTML document, including text and images.
Typically, a Web server administrator is sold a “suite” of server application programs (e.g. IBM's Websphere™ Commerce Suite Version 4.1) from which certain application programs can be specifically selected for installation on the Web server. Once these server application programs are installed, they can be used to enhance the functionality of the Web site hosted by Web server. Access to these server application programs can be provided to the use through the use of HTML form elements such as buttons or scroll-down menus displayed by the Web browser.
The Web server administrator is also provided with a standard Web server program (typically in Java) which generates an HTML document that provides Web clients with interactive access to the various server application programs that are installed on a Web server. If a Web server administrator decides to install or de-install a particular server application program on the Web server then they will want to either provide or remove an associated HTML form element (e.g. application enabling button) from the Web page that is displayed to the user. In order to do so, it is generally necessary for the Web server administrator to modify the Web server program in order to provide an appropriate HTML document to the Web client. This type of program file maintenance is extremely cumbersome and time consuming especially when there are a large number of server applications that are routinely installed and de-installed on a Web server.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method which allows for the selective display of an HTML form element on a Web page at a Web client depending on whether an associated server application program is installed on a Web server.